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The True Way (War Aftermath episode)
| originaldate = 24th October 2008 GMT-6 | stardate = 53482.3 | year = 2376 | prev = | next = Omega }} The True Way is the first story of the Star Trek: War Aftermath tetralogy. Introduction The Federation has been sending relief missions to Cardassia. A political extremist group that fought hard to rid the Cardassian Union of the Dominion feels that the Federation's intentions are less than benign. Commander Elias Vaughn and the crew of the must diffuse a tense hostage situation. Back on Deep Space 9, Colonel Kira Nerys and company have their own terrorist situation to deal with. An important conference is being held and someone is planning to assassinate one of the delegates. The plan involves someone from Kira's past.. Summary Since the end of the Dominion War, Cardassia Prime has become a hotbed of terrorist activity. An interstellar diplomatic summit in Cardassia City is bombed. The anti-Federation group called the True Way later assumes responsibility for an attack on two Federation starships responsible for escorting relief convoys. Its leader, Gul Revok sends an ultimatum that the convoys cease or he will begin executing hostages who make up the crew of the just destroyed . The solution to the conundrum is to send the while cloaked to Cardassia in order deliver the most urgently needed cargo and to conduct a covert rescue of the hostages. But a spy may be aboard Deep Space Nine and the Defiant, ''as the True Way is immediately tipped off. Station personnel, meanwhile, have been preparing for a diplomatic conference involving the Federation, the Cardassians, the Breen, and various non-aligned worlds. The Breen's treaty of alliance with the Dominion stipulated the concession of planets within the Cardassian Union to the Breen. Now that Cardassia is no longer part of the Dominion, that part of the treaty, at least, is now null-and-void. The Breen, however, disagree. This contention, along with news that someone will attempt to assassinate one of the delegates leads to suspicion of the enigmatic Breen. Aboard the ''Defiant, former Lambda Paz ''CO Limis Vircona has little patience with government bureaucracy and prepares her own rescue mission. This plays right into Revok's hands, as Revok intercepts her transporter beam and threatens to kill the hostages one at a time if she does not comply with his demands. One of those demands is to provide the cloaking frequency of the ''Defiant. The Defiant personnel are uncertain how attacking Cardassian ships can see right through the cloaking device. Commander Elias Vaughn executes a maneuver allowing the ship to escape while creating the illusion of the starship's destruction. Revok sees right through his ruse but is willing to let the ship go, as its crew is now in no position to prevent his plans from being carried out. Tactical officer Raul Fitzpatrick believes Julian Bashir to have tipped off the enemy on the basis of Bashir's resemblance of a notorious terrorist leader from 21st century Earth. Vaughn, however, refuses to point fingers without concrete evidence. Back on the station, one of the delegates learns that members of the Kohn-Ma terrorist cell on Bajor plan to assassinate Cardassian ambassador Pirak, begging the question of why the group wants an advocate of peace dead and why the ambassador's own chief of staff is in on the plan. Colonel Kira Nerys allows herself to be captured to get answers to those questions and learn how the assassination is to be carried out. She comes face-to-face with former resistance colleague and current Kohn-Ma Tahna Los. Anti-Federation terrorist groups became less and less common since the Occupation's end, but became more pronounced before, during, and after the Dominion War. The Kohn-Ma have become disillusioned with the Federation's diplomacy-first approach. They plan to assassinate Pirak and lay blame on the Breen delegate as a pretext for taking more aggressive action against the Breen. Kira is still suspicious of Cardassian motives. The True Way is using this plan for their own gain, in order to establish a military presence in the Bajoran system. Acting on a hunch from Admiral William Ross, station personnel learn of this plan and prevent the rogue Cardassians' seizure of the station. Security personnel are then able to thwart a Bajoran assassin wearing a Breen refrigeration suit. He killed the Breen ambassador first to create the illusion of a murder-suicide. On Cardassia, Captain Limis learns that the hostage situation was a means to lure her and coerce her into assisting in the assassination of the Castellan Alon Ghemor. She tips off the Defiant when asked to contact its commander. Vaughn orders the ship into orbit on the far side of Cardassia Prime's nearest moon. Two teams then shuttle to the planet. Ezri Dax's team is dispatched to prevent Ghemor's assassination, while Vaughn's attempts a rescue of the hostages. Both missions are successes, but chief of operations Aiman al-Rashid is caught attempting to sabotage the True Way encampments reactor core. He was the spy all along, serving as a for both Section 31 and the the True Way. He reveals that Section 31 will do whatever is necessary to assure the survival of a friendly Cardassian government. References Characters Deep Space Nine and USS Defiant *Bajoran Militia Colonel Kira Nerys: Commanding Officer, Deep Space 9; Bajoran female. *Starfleet Commander Elias Vaughn: First Officer, Deep Space 9; Commanding Officer, ; Earth Male. *Starfleet Lieutenant Ezri Dax: Executive Officer, USS Defiant; Joined-Trill Female. *Starfleet Lieutenant Julian Bashir: Chief Medical Officer, Deep Space 9 and USS Defiant, Earth Male. *Bajoran Militia Doctor Zeyner Antis: Deputy CMO, Deep Space 9, Bajoran Male. *Starfleet Lieutenant Aiman al-Rashid: Chief of Operations, Deep Space 9; Chief Engineer, USS Defiant; Earth Male. *Starfleet Lieutenant Raul Fitzpatrick: Chief of Security and Weapons Officer, USS Defiant; Earth Male. *Bajoran Militia Lieutenant Ro Laren: Chief of Security, Deep Space 9; Bajoran female. Peripheral characters : Bajoran Militia Major Cenn Desca (Bajoran liaison officer, Deep Space 9; Bajoran male) | Starfleet Ensign Magnaulty (Security guard; Earth male) | Starfleet Crewman Marquez (Security guard and engineer; Earth male | Starfleet Lieutenant (j.g.) Nog (Engineering Assistant, Ferengi Male) | Starfleet Ensign Prynn Tenmei: (Flight Controller, USS Defiant; Earth female) USS Lambda Paz *Captain Limis Vircona: Commanding Officer, Bajoran female *Commander Ronnie Kozar: Executive Officer, Earth male *Lieutenant Commander Mandel Morrison: Tactical Officer, Earth male *Lieutenant Lisa Neeley: MACO commander, Earth female *Lieutenant (j.g.) Sara Carson: Flight Controller, Earth female *Ensign Willis Huckaby: Operations Officer, Earth male Other Protagonists : Elim Garak | Alon Ghemor | Ambassador Pirak | Ilon Tandro Antagonists : Gul Revok | Gul Enic Hadar | Korinas | Legate Turrel | Tahna Los | Mar Ronnick | Mar Solarin Flashback only : Weyoun | Legate/Gul Skrain Dukat | Corat Damar | Odo | Michael Eddington Referenced only : Benjamin Sisko | Worf | Jadzia Dax | Miles O'Brien : Jack Bauer | Victor Drazen | Hamri al-Assad | David Palmer | Wayne Palmer | Noah Daniels | Charles Logan | Hal Gardner Political entities and other organizations *United Federation of Planets *Bajoran Council of Ministers *Cardassian Provisional Government *Kohn-Ma *True Way External links *Fandom website *Story on Trekbbs The True Way